A Foundation for Online Teaching and Learning

Given the current pandemic with the coronavirus, several institutions are transitioning to remote learning for the remainder of the semester.  Educators and students who are unfamiliar with solely remote learning might find this challenging.  To ease the challenges, I will share the pedagogy that I engage in to teach online.

Syllabus

It is crucial to update the syllabus so that it is tailored to online learning.  The syllabus should be clear.  This means that aside from the usual components of a syllabus that departments ask professors to provide, I also include a section on what I expect students to adhere to for a fully online course load.

Sample Excerpt from Syllabus

The below is an excerpt from my syllabus in a section titled “Online Course Load.”

This is a three credit online course.  Therefore, you are expected to devote three hours weekly to this course. In addition, you are expected to complete homework and projects outside of that time.  Thus, plan your week accordingly.  I suggest that you block three hours a week in your schedule for this class.  If you are consistent with your work for this class, then you should not encounter difficulty keeping up with assignments and deadlines.  Since this is an online class, you are responsible for managing the following with deadlines in mind.

• Completion of Readings
• Viewing of Media Clips
• Participation in the Weekly Discussion Forum
• Completion of All Projects

It is imperative that you understand how to manage your time efficiently in an online class. 

Here is a sample schedule that you might like to maintain for the purposes of this class.  You will need to modify this weekly schedule to accommodate for the first and last week. You will also need to plan study block time during the weeks that you have exams or an assignment due. Generally, you may find this schedule helpful.

Monday– Post main post to the Discussion Board.

Tuesday– Post two comments on other students’ posts.

Wednesday– Begin readings for the following week.

Thursday– Review Discussion Board and complete readings for the following week.

Friday – View media clips for following week. Study. Work on course projects.

There are no designated days or times for classes that meet online in traditional online courses.  Therefore, proposing a schedule will help students to dedicate a work block time each day to working on the course based on the course expectations.

Web Conferencing

This strategy will differ for classes that are transitioning from in person to online courses during the semester, which have a specific day and time for classes.  Some institutions can support web conferencing.  If you are utilizing this feature, send a detailed email to students with specific instructions on how to connect and engage in web conferencing for lectures and discussions.

Specific Tasks

Returning to the syllabus, each week should have specific tasks for students.  Each week, I state what the focus is, what the readings are, provide students with a media clip to view, and include the discussion questions that I expect students to focus on.

It is helpful to include specific rubrics and a grade tracker in the syllabus.  This will help students to understand how their work is graded and help them keep a track of their grades.

Teaching Blocks

I find it advantageous to block particular days and times each week to teach my online courses.  However, I do check in on my online classes on unblocked days.  Overall, this creates consistency. My students often say in course evaluations that they appreciate this.

Questions About the Course

First when I log into my course to teach, I check my “Questions About the Course” Discussion Forum.  This is a forum that I create in all of my online courses.  My colleagues at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, Connecticut developed this tool.  The forum states,

Please post general course questions here – that way, everyone can see both the question and the answer!  If you know the answer to a question another student has posted, you are encouraged to post a reply to that person’s question.  The only time to contact the professor directly (by email or message) is if your question is of a confidential nature or relates to a grade you have received.  Otherwise, the question should be added to this discussion forum.

This forum is the space for students to “raise their hand” and ask questions for all other students to witness.  Students help each other in this space and I also respond to students.  This helps to build community in an online course.  I even had a student once coordinate a study group using this forum.

Discussion Forums

Next, I move into teaching on the discussion forums. Depending on the course, I provide lecture notes for students to review before meeting on the forum.  I also post relevant media clips to view.  Students are to complete all assigned readings before meeting on the forum.  Once on the forum, we engage in philosophical discussions and I provide each and every student with a response to their discussion post. This is time-consuming, but I consider this to be time that I spend in class.  Students understand the expectations for the forum because I provide them with handouts during the first week of class based on the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children program at Montclair State University.  The handouts focus on Socratic Questioning, Critical Thinking Moves, Philosophy Session Guided Observation, and Community of Inquiry Self-Evaluation.  The Philosophy for Children Practitioner Handbook along with Dr. Laurance Splitter and Dr. Ann Margaret Sharp’s book, Teaching for Better Thinking have been essential to my online pedagogy. Dr. Maughn Gregory and Dr. David Kennedy, both professors at Montclair State University, have also been instrumental in helping me to develop strategies for my online pedagogy. 

It is important to note that as I set up my course shell for the semester, I set the discussion forum up to open and close at a certain time. Once the forum closes, it is no longer available for students to post.  Thus, they missed their chance to participate in class for that week.

Grading

After discussions on the forums, I complete weekly grading.  This mostly includes the grading of the discussion forums. If I have projects to grade, I block time to work on that in a grading spreadsheet that I develop each semester. Using excel, I list the courses that I am teaching at the top in columns and the weeks of the semester in rows.  I then schedule time to grade all special projects.  This ensures that students receive timely feedback on weekly assignments and special projects, and also ensures that I do not get overwhelmed with grading.

Course Update Email

To continue to set clear expectations for my students, I send a course update email to my students each week with important information about the following week.  In the email, I address any concerns that I have about the class’s communication.  For instance, sometimes, students repeat other students on the forum.  I stress that the forum is a space to build discussion and not merely write a post to answer a prompt.  I also commend my students if they have done a good job for the week.  Most importantly, I share what is forthcoming.  I state what we will focus on the following week, the readings and where to find them, the media clip they should view, and the discussion prompts they should be prepared to discuss on the forum.

In addition, I share a meditation with my students. Most of the time, this is a link to a musical meditative piece.  My students tend to enjoy this loving-kindness meditation that I developed with a previous philosophy class that I taught.  At the end of my email, I express to my students that self-care is important.  I know that college can be stressful and so I urge them to de-stress.  Sharing a meditation helps to create an opening for them to pursue their studies in a stress-free manner.

These are some general strategies that may help professors and their students transition to online learning.  I offer these insights as suggestions and invite you to share your strategies for teaching and learning online.  Together, we will rise to this challenging time in higher education as we embrace remote learning.

Sabrina D. MisirHiralall

Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall is an editor at the Blog of the APA who currently teaches philosophy, religion, and education courses solely online for Montclair State University, Three Rivers Community College, and St. John’s University.